09.01.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Had Enough Yet?, The Budget, The Economy, Transportation, Unemployment at 7:00 am by wcnews
You know the old saying? Things may be bad, but they could always be worse. Well, that appears to be the Texas GOP’s campaign slogan this year. Here’s the line the GOP in Texas has been hiding behind [PDF] for a while now, “The Texas seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 8.2 percent in July, unchanged from June, and continued to trend well below the U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 9.5 percent.” (Emphasis added).
What Gov. Rick Perry appointee, and former Texas GOP chair Tom Pauken is trying to say, is that we should all feel grateful because things aren’t as bad as they are for others. The unemployment rate in Texas has moved little in the last 14 months, hovering between 7.9% and 8.3% since July of 2009. In a rational state, where incumbents are held accountable, that would mean bad news for the Republicans running for reelection in Texas, but I digress. Has anyone heard any ideas for lowering that number from the Governor, Lt. Gov., Speaker or Workforce Commissioner? Me either.
Another line Texas GOP has been been trumpeting is that our budget problems have not been as bad as other states. That is, if you exclude the $16 billion in federal money that was used to balance the budget in 2009. But Texas’ “lesser” budget problems are more about a system that was already punishing the weak, at the behest of the powerful, Texan Tall Tales.
What is true is that the Texas budget is in relatively good shape. That’s because recessions don’t do as much fiscal damage if you have a weak safety net, so expenses don’t rise much as people are plunged into poverty (because they don’t get any help), and a regressive tax system, so that revenues don’t fall much when incomes collapse.
What is clear is that in the upcoming legislative session we’re facing a budget freight train that’s about to go off the rails. The HChron had a piece last week that took the usual, left/right, D/R, perspective on the budget “debate” that has prevailed so far this election cycle, White, Perry not specific about budget - One talks tough on spending, the other of bipartisan compromise. Kuff details what’s likely to be cut, Them that has, gets, and it’s not the Texas Enterprise Fund. Here’s the short list:
Some of Texas’ most vulnerable residents – the very poor, the mentally ill, those suffering from birth defects, and children from troubled families – would lose state support and services under several new budget-cutting proposals.
That’s despicable, but it’s exactly what the Republicans do, and did the last time. We’ve known since the primary what Rick Perry’s plan is for the budget in 2011, it’s the 2003 plan on steroids. Which means more pain for the voiceless, the poor and middle class, in the way of less social services and much higher fees – shhh, don’t call them taxes. Also on the agenda will be their usual accounting tricks and privatization schemes.
Bill White, for his part, has only said that he would accept a local option tax bill. (A local option tax bill would allow local elections to raise taxes in that locality to pay for transportation projects). It’s also likely, in the event the likely GOP controlled legislature was to send a state budget with a tax increase to him, he would allow it to become law. With Perry that probably would not be likely. That doesn’t mean that taxpayers will get a break if Perry’s reelected, they’ll just be called fee increases, instead of tax increases. Both candidates will talk of scrubbing the budget, cutting waste, etc.. But the reality is, and everyone knows it, that if Texas wants to keep it’s current level of spending, including assistance to the weak and needy, then those with higher incomes in Texas will have to pay more taxes [PDF].
Since taking office in 2001 Gov. Perry has saddled Texans with $11.8 billion in transportation debt, where there was none when he took office. In Texas the Republicans are in charge and have been for the last 7 years. The education system, public and higher, is facing all sorts of trouble – quality down, cost up. Unemployment is roughly twice what it was when they took over. While our situation may not be as bad as other states, we must ask ourselves why are things so much worse since the GOP started running this state? It’s also likely going to get much worse, for those of us who aren’t on the high end of the wage scale, as long as they’re in charge.
These issues are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s no wonder Perry and his GOP cohorts are running scared from Democrats and the media.
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08.24.10
Posted in Around The Nation, Bad Government Republicans, The Budget, The Economy at 10:23 am by dembones
Paul Krugman followed up yesterday’s blockbuster New York Times op-ed with a blog post today defending the fact that over the next decade, the GOP proposal to extend all Bush tax cuts, not just those going to the middle class as President Obama suggests, will line the pockets of the richest 0.1 percent of taxpayers with $3M each.
What’s at stake here? According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years.
Krugman points out that the TPC estimates that most of the money will end up in the pockets of the rich.
Take a group of 1,000 randomly selected Americans, and pick the one with the highest income; he’s going to get the majority of that group’s tax break. And the average tax break for those lucky few — the poorest members of the group have annual incomes of more than $2 million, and the average member makes more than $7 million a year — would be $3 million over the course of the next decade.
Your choice in November is between a party that will responsibly navigate the country out of the financial wilderness created by decades of voodoo economics, and one that wants to open the doors of the United States Treasury to be looted by the wealthiest members of our society. Vote Democratic to continue down the path to recovery, or return to the policies of the Republican Party that led us into this mess.
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05.28.10
Posted in Commissioners Court, Health Care, The Budget, Williamson County at 3:01 pm by wcnews
This seems like a pretty big error, Williamson County will have to pay more for indigent care.
Williamson County made a $4 million miscalculation when it determined the maximum amount the state requires it to spend on indigent health care. But that will not change commissioners’ recent decision to eliminate coverage for people without legal Social Security cards, Commissioner Cynthia Long said.
“We believe we made the right decision for the taxpayers of Williamson County,” she said.
County auditors found out May 13 — after meeting with state officials — that the county is now required to spend up to $4.4 million more than it initially anticipated on its indigent health care program, said Julie Kiley , an assistant county auditor.
The state requires the county to spend up to 8 percent of its general tax revenue to provide health care for people who qualify for its indigent program. Once the county reaches the state-mandated cap, the state begins reimbursing the county for additional costs.
County officials initially thought the maximum the county could spend on the program for this budget year was $7.1 million. That amount has now increased to up to $11.5 million, Kiley said.
County officials did not know the revenue also was supposed to include money from the debt tax levy revenue fund, Kiley said. The revenue from that fund added about $50 million to the total revenue amount, she said.
[...]
Long said this week that the county is projecting it will spend double the amount it has budgeted for the indigent health care program. The county budgeted $4 million and appropriated $3.1 million more this spring, and it expects to reach $8 million by the end of the budget year in September, she said.
Commissioner Valerie Covey said the fact that the maximum the county is required to spend has increased is a separate issue from the county’s decision to cut coverage for adults and children without Social Security cards.
In other words the county has to spend $11.5 million dollars this fiscal year on indigent health care. It was originally calculated by “county officials” that the county had to spend $7.1 this year – $4.4 million more. As you may, or may not recall, a few weeks ago the county made a big deal out of cutting off indigent health care for anyone without a valid Social Security card. Saying it was needed to because money was running out to pay for indigent health care this year.
Now we find out they have a significant amount more money that must be spent on indigent health care. And the county, according to Commissioner Long, will not change it’s policy regarding those without a valid Social Security card. This leaves two questions. Who are they going to spend this miscalculated $4.4 million for indigent health care on? Obviously it’s much cheaper, not to mention humane, to treat these people at a doctor’s office when they first get sick, as opposed making their only option the emergency room. The second question is who are these “county officials” that made this “miscalculation”?
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05.26.10
Posted in Around The State, Taxes, The Budget at 9:54 pm by wcnews
As you may, or many not know, GOP Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst made this claim about the Texas budget in an Op-Ed last year, “So it’s simply political fiction that stimulus dollars were necessary to balance our budget.” And Democratic state Rep. Jim Dunnam took exception to that claim soon after in a rebuttal Op-Ed. Although Dewhust is technically correct, anyone living in the real world knows it’s just that, a technicality.
The statement came up again recently when Dewhurst was interviewed by the Texas Tribunes’ Evan Smith.
Smith: But the difference would have been that you would have had to go find the money that you got from the federal government that you got presumably in the form of cuts.
Dewhurst: No, we wouldn’t have had the spending level that we did. We would have had to trim the budget. We still would have been able to put some money into public education, some money into higher education, but we wouldn’t have been able to put as much money into public education and higher education and into Medicaid as we were able to do with the stimulus dollars. That’s a true statement. At the same time, we were able to create a better budget by having some access to the federal funds
In essence what Both Dewhurst and Dunnam are saying is that Texas’ budget would have been balanced, with or without the stimulus, it’s the law. But life in Texas would be much different then it is now. And that’s the reality that the elected Texas Republicans will not admit to. Without the help of the federal Texas, and their political futures would be in much worse shape.
As the recent CBO report shows the stimulus has worked, and worked well, CBO says stimulus a bigger success than expected. This is important because as Perry, Dewhurst and the rest of the GOP in Texas crow about their budget slashing prowess, they didn’t do any in 2009, because of the federal stimulus.
Without the $16 billion dollars Texas used in 2009 to balance the state’s budget, without slashing it to the bone and without raising taxes, Texas would be in extreme circumstances and unemployment would be considerably higher then it is right now. Heading into another budget cycle that would be even more dire.
The point of all of this is, for the GOP members in Texas to be running around saying how much they hate the federal government and all it’s spending, is extremely dishonest. Without the stimulus money in Texas these politicians would be in a much more dire political situation, and they have the federal government to thank for the fact that they are not.
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05.20.10
Posted in 81st Legislature, Around The State, Good Stuff, The Budget at 12:14 pm by wcnews
For Democrats to retake Texas they have to show that they’re for common sense public policy changes, that most Texans are for, but Republicans will shun. I think these simple steps laid out by state Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin), as reported today by Jason Embry in the AAS, are a great example.
Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, gave a pretty thorough critique Wednesday of how the Legislature writes the state budget, saying he wouldn’t vote for tax increases or taking money out of the Rainy Day Fund until the budget-balancing gimmicks end.
For some time now, Watson has been one of the Legislature’s most outspoken critics of the practice of collecting money for one purpose and then spending it on something else — a practice that has become a cornerstone of the budget-writing process in Texas.
“My vote will not be there for taxes, my vote will not be there for the Rainy Day Fund, until we have real budget reform,” Watson said at a breakfast event hosted by the Texas Tribune.
He said the budgeting process in Texas has become about debt, diversions and delay. “Over and over again, it’s about how we can kick the can down the road,” Watson said.
He said state leaders are focusing too much on one piece of the economic-development puzzle — low taxes — while neglecting to “invest in Texans,” through, for example, higher education.
Asked about Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s claim that stimulus dollars weren’t necessary to balance the budget, Watson said, “I could be playing in the NBA Finals right now if I weren’t four feet tall.”
(As I have written before, yes, you could balance a state budget without stimulus dollars, but not one that spent as much as lawmakers spent last year, and isn’t that the only thing that matters?)
Finally, he said it could work to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White’s advantage that he’s a details guy. “Bill White’s a nerd. But that’s a good thing. Bill White is going to be the kind of governor that will take the time to get the details.”
Go the this BOR post, Sen. Kirk Watson on an Open, Honest Budget, to see Watson explain this, in the form of a series of bills he files during the 81st legislative session.
Today, I’ll file a package of reforms designed to make the Texas budget more sensible, open and honest. These bills are about making a positive change and putting the Legislature more in touch with Texans.
The bills will help citizens see how legislators are spending their money. They’ll also create checks and balances to ensure public funds are going toward things Texans want and expect the state to invest in.
My package would require the state to spend money in ways that legislative leaders have always promised – and it would block those leaders from diverting the same money into what amounts to a hedge fund.
It would create unprecedented public access to the budget-writing process so people can get answers to their own questions, not just those questions that budget writers choose to answer.
And it would help small businesses, kids and the economy by bolstering programs that everyday Texans need and support.
These changes make sense, and make our state’s budget process more open and transparent. Why would anyone be against them?
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Posted in Commissioners Court, County Judge, The Budget, Williamson County at 11:29 am by wcnews
It always a little sad how programs for the least among us - in this case children, the mentally ill, and the elderly – are always the first mentioned to be on the chopping block, Wilco studies $300,000 in social service funding.
The agencies in question – providing everything from mental health services to meals for senior citizens – all have county government contracts up for renewal, Pct. 1 Commissioner Valerie Covey of Georgetown and county budget officer Ashlie Koenig said.
Koenig said representatives from the agencies are encouraged to attend the May 25 commissioners court meeting, in order to provide input and answer questions.
She said contracts for the current year are all one year in length and involve the commitment of $287,000 in taxpayer dollars. A total of $309,000 – representing a $22,000 increase (7.6 percent) – has been requested for next year.
“It’s a policy [decision],” Covey said of the proposed contract renewals. “What do we need to be doing? What are we required to do? What direction are we going in?”
County Judge Dan Gattis predicted the funding proposals will spark discussion and debate among commissioners.
“It’s one more thing in a tight budget year,” Gattis said. “That will be the whole discussion. These are things we generally have to do one way or the other. Either we support these agencies… or it [the cost] falls back on us anyway.”
Covey, who isn’t up for reelection this year, appears to be carrying the hatchet for the commissioners court. Gattis is right, much of this will have to paid for one way or another, and if we can’t fully fund “Meals on Wheels” in Williamson County we should be ashamed of ourselves. Click the link above for the complete list of programs being looked at for cuts.
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05.19.10
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Taxes, The Budget at 8:59 am by wcnews
It’s obvious that the “big 3″ – Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and House Speaker Joe Straus – are worried about cutting too much, too soon before the election. They don’t want to foretell exactly how bad their budget cuts will be if they are reelected. Via the AAS, State leaders spare some from budget cuts.
Laying off prison guards and slicing college financial aid proved to be politically unpalatable to state leaders as they directed agencies on Tuesday to trim $1.2 billion from their current budgets.
But it might not be so easy for legislators to pass over such items next year as they face a shortfall in the 2012-13 budget that could be as big as $18 billion.
Republican leaders have vowed to close that gap without raising taxes, so it is likely that billions more would need to be sliced from the state budget to cover a portion of that gap.
“The leadership has been promising the State of Texas something for nothing for a long time,” said state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin. “It may not work this next year.”
The upcoming shortfall stems from the economic recession as well as past legislative decisions that were not fully paid for at the time, such as the school property tax cut in 2006.
The budget-trimming effort initiated by Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus in January is widely seen as a harbinger of cuts to come.
[...]
n February, agencies proposed a total of $1.7 billion of potential cuts in response to the mandate. The legislative leaders combed through the proposals over the past four months to determine what should be spared the knife.
The $483 million in exemptions announced Tuesday include money for border security, job creation programs, state mental health hospitals and other items.
“These savings will protect taxpayers’ hard-earned money while maintaining essential services vital to the people of Texas,” Dewhurst said in a news release.
But the cuts represent only about 1.4 percent of the state’s $87 billion general revenue budget, which is funded with tax dollars and over which the Legislature has control.
Democrats are doubtful that legislators will be able to cut their way out of the budget hole without hurting Texans.
“Texas is a conservative state,” said state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio . “If we really thought that all these programs were fluff to begin with, they would have been cut before.”
Van de Putte said it is unrealistic to expect the state to overcome this budget crisis without a combination of more cuts and more revenue.
About half of the total $1.2 billion in mandated reductions will be in education, despite the exemptions for school districts and financial aid. In total, $655 million was cleaved from the budgets of Texas colleges and universities and Texas Education Agency programs. Those reductions include layoffs, hiring freezes and program trims.
[...]
“What are the value judgments that are being made to determine what gets cut and what doesn’t?” Watson asked. “Do they think they have left a lot of waste after this set of cuts they’ve just made?”
With an election coming up those things are “politically unpalatable”, but once they’re safely reelected they will be their first best option. We’re already seeing headlines like these, UTMB to lay off 363 prison health care workers (which could land the state in court), and , 122 laid off so far, and scores more at risk.
Essentially what the “big 3″ are trying to do is show they’re doing something ahead of time while not causing themselves too much political pain in the process. Or as Dewhurst likes to put it:
The overall goal, he said, is to achieve reductions while avoiding “cutting into the muscle” of state government. “We’re determined to protect all essential services,” he said.
But when layoffs start coming like gangbusters, and Straus has already said that he wants to look at unpaid furloughs for state workers, that’s cutting into not just muscle but bone.
As Bob Moser points out at the Texas Observer, Will Next Budget Be Worse Than 2003?, these guys did some really bad things in 2003 that was the big driver of their party’s loss of support since then.
Those of us who lived through the 2003 session remember the damage inflicted on the state by the deep budget cuts that year. Refusing to raise taxes—though they did hike a number of “fees,” but that’s a separate issue—Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature closed the gap mainly through accounting tricks and spending cuts. Lawmakers sliced more than $1 billion out of education and $6 billion from health and human services, according to state budget analysts (hat tip to the Statesman). Other key state functions were privatized—in some cases, with disastrous results.
The 2003 budget didn’t do the state well. One of the most famous consequences was that hundreds of thousands of kids lost state-sponsored health insurance. But the budget cuts affected nearly every corner of Texas life.
Perry said during the primary debate that, if reelected, he plans to do the same thing he did in 2003. The cuts then were disastrous for Texas and took a toll on many GOP members of the Texas House. Most of the likely cuts will hurt those most in need and without lobbyists, like working Texans. Whether it’s in public and higher education, health care, government oversight and regulation, and of course failed privatization schemes, all things that were tried and failed then.
It’s taken seven years for the Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollment to return to its 2002 levels (and all the while, the state’s uninsured population has grown).
Meanwhile, the system that enrolls people in food stamps and other government programs is still a mess, reeling from a disastrous plan that laid off thousands of state workers in favor of privately run call centers. The plan was hastily abandoned, but the damage had been done. Before 2003, the Texas food stamp program was a model of efficiency. It regularly won awards from the federal government for its low error rate. Now, the food stamp program is an embarrassment, as Corrie MacLaggan’s excellent reporting in the Statesman has shown.
House Speaker Joe Straus said this week he favored closing the budget gap without raising taxes. Surely, lawmakers will have to seek out new revenue sources—legalized gambling seems to be popular once again. But, if Straus is to be believed, the emphasis once again will be on reduced spending. And they can’t cut Medicaid and CHIP, like they did in 2003, because the newly passed national health care bill likely won’t allow it. That means deeper cuts in other programs.
[...]
This is just the beginning. I honestly don’t know where lawmakers will find the cuts, and how bad the consequences will be. Texas already spends less per citizen than any other state in the nation.
I do know that cutting that much from the state budget—$10 billion, $15 billion, $18 billion, whatever the final figure—will negatively affect nearly everyone in this state for years to come.
The point is there’s nothing left to cut without causing a serious negative effects to Texans and Texas for years to come. It’s called economic scarring. Economic scarring is what I saw in my grandparents, and to a lesser degree my parents, who lived through the Great Depression. It effected them for the rest of their lives.
Dewhurst’s quote above stated that, “..they are determined to protect all essential services”. That’s a very careful political statement, and of course open to interpretation of what exactly an essential service is. (For Dewhurst steroid testing in public schools is essential). Texas is a low tax state, and it’s exactly at times like this, to keep from setting our state back for years, we must raise taxes. It’s time for all of us to pay a little more, but especially those who have not been paying their fare share in Texas – the wealthy, big businesses, and corporations – to keep Texas from sinking into an even worse economic situation.
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05.17.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Taxes, The Budget at 11:46 am by wcnews
As the internet is all aflutter about the latest poll on the TX-Gov’s race, it’s has pushed the real problems our state is facing aside. But as we can see from this article, Business tax not expected to hit goal, the budget problems Texas will be facing next year were virtually guaranteed when the GOP business tax was created in 2006.
It was a tax born in a barbecue joint, the story has it, and now it’s giving state budget writers heartburn.
The Texas business tax comes due again today, and no one’s suggesting it will yield anywhere near the approximately $6 billion it was initially forecast to produce annually.
It yielded $4.5 billion when first collected in 2008, based on the previous year’s business activity. Last year, collections dipped to $4.3 billion. State Comptroller Susan Combs predicts the same amount will be collected this year.
“I think it was set up to fail,” said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, noting the levy was passed to help cover the cost of a cut in property tax rates for school districts. “I think when it was passed, they knew that it would not provide the appropriate swap that they were looking for, that it would not cover the reduction” in property taxes.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said the school finance package was a net tax cut — back when the state had a surplus.
“To date, it’s been very successful in reducing the school property taxes and increasing the state share of funding public education,” Ogden said. “Going forward, it could be a problem because the state’s economy is in recession.”
The shortfall in expected collections has made things worse for lawmakers confronting a budget shortfall as big as $18 billion through the next two-year budget period.
The business tax was part of a package championed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry and approved by legislators to meet a court order to revamp school funding in 2006.
Experts cite several reasons why the tax failed to live up to expectations.
It’s a one-of-a-kind tax, unique to Texas, and therefore hard to forecast. It’s complicated, and businesses have ended up taking bigger exemptions in one area in particular, cost of goods sold, than originally projected. And the lagging economy has played a role.
The article goes on to talk about how the business tax is a “unique tax”, uniquely bad it should be said. And Sen. Watson is dean on, this tax was setup to fail. Now the GOP, with the help of John Sharp, have put in place a disastrous economic policy, that will allow the Texas GOP if left in power to bring draconian budget cuts that will harm poor and working Texans the most. It’s all just part of the plan.
As far as the poll goes, EOW doesn’t get too up, of too down on any polls just yet. The one thing I see that’s a constant in the last two polls that White should be working on is that Perry has a 55% approval rating. White should be hammering Perry on his negatives like his posh living quarters in Westalke, Gov. Perry’s temporary digs costs Texas big bucks, and doing everything he can to drive up Perry’s negatives, and there are many.
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05.12.10
Posted in Around The Nation, Around The State, Commentary, Taxes, The Budget at 12:01 pm by wcnews
“Ignorance is not knowing. Stupidity is knowing and doing it anyway.” In other words, ignorance has to do with a simple lack of knowledge or education, but stupidity results when a person already possesses the necessary knowledge, yet continues to engage in behaviors that are patently illogical.
Over the next few months heading to the November election, and 2011 legislative session in Texas, there will be much discussion about the budget shortfall that our state will be facing. The publicized estimate grew yesterday from what was an $11 billion shortfall to an $18 billion shortfall. In order to have a serious discussion about this it’s key for us not to be ignorant of how we got here. It’s not an accident, or a perfect storm, this is all part of a plan.
By and large most people are for what government does for them, and only think it’s “too big” when it does things that don’t directly benefit them. And often times politicians are not good at explaining to the people how and educated population, health care, clean water and air, roads, etc…benefit everyone as a whole and that we should all pay something for them. It’s much easier for a politician to make silly jokes about it, (“I’m from the government and I’m here to help”), or blame all the problems on the government. It’s much harder to educate the electorate and bring about workable solutions.
But key to finding a solution is knowing how we got where we are, knowing the history. Back to the plan referenced above. Anyone who is a regular reader likely already knows what the plan is. Republicans since Reagan devised a scheme of how they wanted to “shrink government”. It’s was supply-side economics, nicknamed “Voodoo/Trickle-Down Economics”.
(There’s much more in the extended entry).
Read the rest of this entry �
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05.11.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Right Wing Lies, Taxes, The Budget at 3:44 pm by wcnews
GOP Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, in an effort to shore up his right flank, made a few wild statements before the beginning of a House Appropriations Committee hearing today. The long and short is that he says the infamous “no new taxes” line. But it’s not clear, from what’s been reported so far, if Straus believes “new revenue streams” like taking away sales tax exemptions, or raising fees, are considered a “new tax” or not.
First this from Texas Politics, House Speaker: No-new-taxes budget essential, will mean significant cuts and a look at ideas like unpaid furloughs.
Among ideas that Straus mentioned:
–A blanket moratorium on all new programs and services that require state funding
–A halt to issuing bonds because of the cost of debt
–Efforts to contain personnel costs and payroll growth, including consideration of the effect of freezing higher- level salaries and limiting new hires to those who are essential for Texan’s welfare and safety.
–Personnel containment costs used in other states, including unpaid furloughs to save salary costs and four-day work weeks to save operating costs.
Straus emphasized he’s not advocating any of those choices but said every cost-saving idea must be on the table.
Straus is going California with those “unpaid furloughs”. Of course the big questions are left unanswered like how to we make up for the neglect of the last fifteen years of public education and transportation infrastructure neglect.
In a SP story from April Castro Straus was quoted as saying some already debunked and false information on the effect of the new health care bill on the state budget, Straus says state must get creative with budget.
Straus said the federal health care overhaul will only exacerbate the state’s budgetary woes.
“Over the next few years, Texans will face higher federal income taxes and other increases in federal levies, including for Social Security and Medicare as result of the federal health care reforms,” Straus said. “Our work on the budget will begin in an environment of uncertainty as the federal government grapples with spending and tax measures to reduce the federal debt. This makes it even more imperative that the state of Texas cover its budget shortfall without a tax increase.”
It will actually help to reduce the deficit. The effect of the health care bill on state budgets will be negligible, and starting in 2014, and will not effect the 2011 budget. And the rest of that about income taxes, Medicare and Social Security is just scare tactics and wing-nut rhetoric.
Once again, the main problem facing Texas is the the most valuable assets of our state in the past, and educated population and a top notch transportation infrastructure, are at a breaking point and the current leaders in our state, like Straus, would rather use scare tactics than try and work for an equitable solution.
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